Indigenous Peoples in Voluntary Isolation

These are indigenous peoples who have decided to live in voluntary isolation –and wish to continue doing so– from the world we live in or, as is sometimes the case in the Amazon, have historically sought isolation by using forms that enabled them to maintain distance from the outside world or even from other indigenous peoples that have a regular contact with the outside world. Different realities of Indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation can still be found in all continents in tropical forest. However, the areas where these peoples still are able to survive and maintain their way of life are getting increasingly scarce with the on-going land and forest grabbing process for different purposes. Their plight need support, because they are in total inferiority of conditions to resist the devastating advance of predominant society and its land grabbing practices, at the same time, these indigenous peoples are different and are showing enormous wisdom in wanting to maintain their isolation.

Dear friends,
WRM is pleased to announce the release of three new materials that we would like to share with you on March 21, designated by the United Nations as International Day of Forests.
– The first is a new document called...

By the World Rainforest Movement
This book gathers articles published in the monthly electronic bulletin of the World Rainforest Movement (WRM) regarding indigenous peoples and their struggles in defence of the forest. These peoples are...

Around the world ‘development’ is robbing tribal people of their land, self-sufficiency and pride and leaving them with nothing. “There you go” is a short, satirical film, from Survival International, that tells the story of how...

By Survival. This short film, narrated by Joanna Lumley, tells the story of the Dongria Kondh’s resistance. Vedanta are intent on constructing an open-cast mine on their land and thereby destroying the tribes sacred mountain and with it...

Unión de Nativos Ayoreo de Paraguay, Iniciativa Amotocodie, Informe IWGIA 4
This publication is aimed at demarcating the territory of the Ayoreo people by blending two editorial approaches: on the one hand, that of objective data,...

By the World Rainforest Movement.
August 9 has been declared as International Day of the World’s Indigenous People. On this date, the WRM wishes to express its full support to the numerous indigenous peoples around the world that are...

Many people are unaware that there are still indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation –both contacted and uncontacted- particularly in the tropics. People are also largely unaware about the impacts resulting from forced or free...